General info and comments

A clever tile-laying game for 2 to 6 players aged 8 and above by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede

The city of Carcassonne in southern France is famous for its unique Roman and Medieval
fortifications. The players take their chances with their followers in the cities, cloisters,
farms and on the roads around Carcassonne. The development of the land is in their
hands, and the skillful deployment of the followers as thieves, knights, monks and farmers
is the path to success.

Contents

72 land tiles (including one with a dark reverse) which depict road, city and field segments, as well as cloisters and crossings.[1]

Each follower can be deployed as a knight, monk, thief or farmer. One follower of each color is used as a scoring marker.

One scoreboard. This is used to track players' scores

One rule booklet and one supplement.

Rules

Overview

The players place the land tiles turn by turn. This leads to the growth of roads, cities,
cloisters and farms, to which the players may deploy their followers in order to earn
points. As points can be won during the game as well as at the end, the winner will only
emerge during the final scoring.

Preparation

The starting tile is placed in the middle of the table.[4] The remaining tiles are mixed and placed face-down on the table in several stacks, so that each player can access them easily.[5] The scoreboard should be placed at the edge of the table if possible.

Scoreboard

Each player chooses a color and receives the eight followers, placing one on the ‘0’ field of the scoreboard as a scoring marker. The remaining seven followers stay with the player for the moment, as his or her supply.

Playing the game

Play progresses in a clockwise fashion. The player whose turn it is carries out the following
actions in the order given:

The player must draw one new land tile and place it.

The player may draw one follower from his or her supply and deploy it to the tile just placed.

If any roads, cities, or cloisters are completed through the placement of the tile, they must be scored now.

Then it is the next player's turn.

1. Place a tile

As their first action, the player must draw a tile from one of the stacks. The tile is then
shown to the other players (so they can ‘advise’ the player about where to place it) and
placed on the table. The player must take care to observe the following points:

At least one side of the new tile (with a red border in the examples below) must touch one or more tiles already in play.[7] Corner-to-corner placement is not permitted.

Any city, road, and field segments must continue segments already in play. [8][9]

In the rare case that a tile cannot legally be placed anywhere, and all players agree, it is
removed from the game, and the player draws another.[10][11]

2. Deploy a follower

When the player has placed the tile, he or she may deploy a follower. In doing so the following points must be observed:

Only one follower may be deployed each turn.

The follower must come from the player's supply.

The follower may only be deployed to the tile just placed.

The player must decide which part of the tile the follower is deployed to [12][13] as either:

a thief on a road segment

a knight in a city segment

a monk on a cloister (monastery)

a farmer on on one of those two field segments. Place farmer lying down!

There must be no other follower (not even one belonging to the same player) on the road, city, or field segments connected to the tile just placed. It does not matter how far away the follower is. The following two examples may help to explain:

BLUE can only deploy a farmer: there is already a knight in the connecting city.

BLUE can deploy the follower as a knight or a thief, or as a farmer on the small farm segment: the large farm is already occupied.

If a player runs out of followers during the course of play, he or she may only place tiles.
But don't panic: you can also get followers back.

Now the player’s turn is over, and it is the turn of the next player on the left.

With the following exception: if a road, city or cloister was completed through the
placement of the tile, it must now be scored.[14]

3. Score completed roads, cities or cloisters

A completed road

A road is completed when the road segments on both sides end in a crossing,[15] a city segment, or a cloister, or when the road forms a closed circle. [16]There is no limit to the number of road segments which can lie between these endings.

A player who has a thief on this completed road scores as many points as the road is long, decided by counting the number of tiles.[17]

RED scores 4 points

RED scores 3 points

Whenever points are scored, they are immediately recorded on the scoreboard (more on this in the section about the scoreboard).

A completed city

A city is completed when its segments are fully encompassed by a city wall and there are no gaps within the city.[18] There is no limit to how many segments a city may contain.

A player who has a knight in a completed city scores 2 points for every city segment. [19] Every pennant (banner / shield symbol)[20] scores an extra 2 points.

RED scores 8 points (three city segments and one pennant)

RED scores 8 points (four city segments, no pennants)

When both city segments on a tile are in a single city (marked with A), they only count as one segment

What happens if there are several followers on a completed road or in a completed city?

Through the wily placement of land tiles it is quite possible for several thieves to be on a road, or for several knights to occupy a city.

The points are then scored by the player with the most thieves or knights.[21] In the case of a draw, all players involved score the full number of points.

The new tile joins the previously unconnected city segments, forming a single completed city

BLUE and RED both score the full 10 points, as they both have one knight in the city—a draw!

A completed cloister (monastery)

A cloister is completed when it is surrounded by eight land tiles. The player who has a monk in the cloister immediately scores 9 points—1 point for every land tile.

RED scores 9 points

Returning followers to their owners

After a road, city, or cloister has been completed and scored – and only then – any thieves, knights, or monks involved are returned to their owner. From the next turn onwards, the player can then use them again in whatever role he or she chooses.

It is possible to deploy a follower, score immediately, and have the follower returned, all in the same turn. In this case, you must use the following order: [22]

Complete a road, city or cloister with the new tile.

Deploy a thief, knight or monk.

Score the completed road, city or cloister.

Return the thief, knight or monk to your supply.

RED scores 4 points

RED scores 3 points

Farms

Several connected field segments form a farm.[23] Farms and field segments are not scored. They serve only as places to deploy farmers; the owner of the farm only scores points at the end of the game. As such, farmers remain on the farm for the duration of the
game and are never returned to their owner![24] In order to make that clear, the farmers should be laid on their backs.

Farms are separated from each other by roads, cities and the edge of the playing field –
this is important during the final scoring.[25]

All three farmers are on their own farms. The road segment and the city separate thefarms from each other.

After the placement of the new tile, the farms of the three farmers are joined to form one.

Be careful: The player who placed the new tile may not deploy a farmer, since the (now connected) farm is already occupied by farmers.

The scoreboard

Any points scored should be recorded on the scoreboard immediately. The board is a track of fifty fields that can be lapped many times. When the field "0" is reached or passed the player takes a point tile (from Inns and Cathedrals) and places it in plain view of all other players, with the number "50" face up. In this way it is clear to all that the player has already scored 50 points or more [26] If the player reaches or passes the field "0" again, they should turn the point tile over so that the number "100" is face up. It is quite possible that the player might lap the circuit a third time: then he or she should take another point tile and display it next to the first, the "50" face up.[27]

"50"/"100" tiles and a scoring marker after 50 points.

The End of the Game

The game ends at the end of the turn in which the last land tile is placed.[28] Any roads, cities, and cloisters completed in this round are scored as usual. This is followed by the final scoring.

Final Scoring

Scoring incomplete roads, cities and cloisters

The first things to be scored during the final scoring are the incomplete roads, cities and cloisters. For every incomplete road, city
and cloister the owner scores 1 point for every segment. Pennants also now score only 1 point.[29] As soon as the feature in question has been scored, the followers involved are removed.

RED scores 3 points for the incomplete road. YELLOW scores 5 points for the incomplete cloister. BLUE scores 3 points for the incomplete city on the bottom right. GREEN scores 8 points for the large incomplete city. BLACK scores nothing, since GREEN has more knights in the city.

Scoring farms

Only the farmers and their farms are left, and these will be scored now. The owner of each farm should be established. If several players have farmers on a given farm, then the player with the most farmers is the owner. In the case of a draw, all the players with the most farmers are considered to be owners. The owner (or owners) of the farm score 3 points for every completed city which borders the farm, or lies within it.[30][31] If a city borders more than one farm, the owner(s) of each farm score(s) 3 points for the city.[32][33]

Example of farmer scoring

Here is a more detailed example of how farmers and their farms are scored.

Be careful with the edges of the farm: farms are separated from each other by roads, cities (if they don’t lie within the farm) and the edge of the playing field.

* Farm 1:BLUE owns farm 1. Two completed cities (A and B) border the farm. For each completed city BLUE scores 3 points (irrespective of their size), or a total of 6 points.

* Farm 2:RED and BLUE own farm 2. There are three completed cities (A, B and C) bordering or lying within this farm. RED and BLUE therefore score 9 points each.

Notice that cities A and B score points for BLUE on farm 1 as well as RED and BLUE on farm 2, since these cities border both farms. The city on the bottom left is incomplete, and so generates no points.

* Farm 3:YELLOW owns farm 3, since YELLOW has more farmers on it than BLACK. There are four completed cities bordering or lying within farm 2, so YELLOW scores 12 points.

House Rules

The players decide who starts the game by any method they choose—such as by rolling three followers. The first player to ‘roll’ a standing follower decides who plays first. (Thanks to Joff.)

To determine the first player; each player draws a tile from the bag, the player that drew the tile with the most roads (0 to 4) plays first, if there is a tie for most roads, a draw-off takes place. This is repeated until someone wins. (Thanks to michael.)

Take your next tile at the end of your turn, to give you time to think about placement and avoid analysis paralysis.

Play with a three-tile hand. The abbey counts as part of your hand. Play your turn. including the builder, and then draw back up to three tiles. These tiles could be visible to all or hidden to the other players (Thanks to DavidP and youth.)

When playing with a bag for the tiles, the original starting tile may be put into the bag, and unplayable tiles can be put back into the bag rather than set to one side. (Thanks to dwhitworth.)

Trees (bushes) on roads do not end the road—only houses do (when the road forks). This makes road building a lot more dynamic. (Thanks to Tobias.)

When a tile is the only tile which can currently complete a structure, other players can offer to ‘buy’ it by offering points, trades counter, abbey, and so on. (Thanks to Deatheux.)

If you place a tile that fills a hole in the playing field by touching something on all four adjacent sides, you get another turn. This helps motivate people to finish the board even if they do not get an advantage from the placement. (Does not apply to the abbey tile). (Thanks to viberunner.)

Incomplete features at the end of the game do not score points at the end of the game. (Thanks to metoth.)

The edge of the table limits the playing area. Thus, a player may not place a tile past the edge of the table or move the playing area to place a tile that would have been past the edge of the table. (Thanks to metoth for prompting this one, and to SkullOne for pointing out that this is an official rule from Hunters and Gatherers.)

Table borders COMPLETE features as an abbey would. (Thanks to PreGy.)

Use colored dice instead of meeples on the scoring track. Start out with the 6 showing on top. When the marker completes one lap, turn it to the number 1 to indicate it has completed one lap. This shows at a glance which player is on what lap and who's ahead. On the 100 space track it’s even easier to determine someone’s score at a glance. (Thanks to Carcking.)

Use of a Table

A number of questions have been asked about rules related to the play area itself, including what happens when the edge of the area is reached, or if a table has to be used for play. The following clarifications are from Georg Wild from HiG (5/2013):

The edge of the table is the limit for the game if, as stated in the rules, a table is used.

The rules state that the starting tile is placed in the middle of the table. If all of the tiles are shifted to allow more room, the starting tile would no longer be in the middle. So in principle, total shifting of the tiles is not allowed. Additionally, with a manual shift of all of the tiles, the tiles and figures on the field can slip, which could lead to incorrect positioning of tiles or figures.

Addition of a second table is possible if one of an appropriate height is added to the first table. If a table is extended (as with an additional panel), make sure that the tiles and figures on the playing field do not slip.

Playing on the floor: The rules technically do not allow this, because the rules state that the first tile is placed in the middle of the table. Playing on the floor is not forbidden, however, if use of a table is not feasible. If the floor is used, tiles must be placed so all tiles are visible to all players. Tiles cannot be placed under the sofa, cabinet/shelf, etc.

It is important generally, that all the players in the round agree how to play:

Table - Standard

Table - with "total shifting" of tiles

Table - with extension

Floor

Continue to play fairly and not intentionally unfair to other players.

Tile Distribution

Footnotes

↑ The RGG edition of the Big Box, which includes The River, adds the following sentence here:
“The 12 river tiles are NOT part of the basic game but do have the same back as the starting tile.”

↑Question: Too few followers—are we playing wrong or are there really too few? Answer: In our view there are not too few. A certain shortage of followers is entirely intentional. An important element of the game is precisely learning to be economical with one's followers.

Follower shortage

↑ As far as the Big Box is concerned, the sixth set of (gray) followers is a part of the basic game, not Inns and Cathedrals. Additionally, Big Box 5 adds purple and pink followers for up to 8 players.

↑ This paragraph represents the current HiG rules. The RGG rules state that the players decide among themselves who will be the starting player, and the ZMG rules mention both options.

↑Question: We have difficulty deciding when a placed tile represents a new city or belongs to one already being built. Answer: 'Corner to corner' is not a connection! Segments can only be connected on the edges. In the example shown there are two cities at the moment.

Corner to corner

↑ Cloisters can be placed directly next to each other, or corner to corner. It is not necessary for there to be eight other (non-cloister) tiles neighbouring a cloister. A cloister stands in the middle of a field segment and other segments can be placed next to it. In contrast to roads, cities, and fields, it is not possible to connect to a cloister.

↑ A newly placed land tile must fit the adjacent terrain on all edges. During placement it is not enough to look for only one side that fits.

Illegal tile placement

↑ Alternatively, if legal, the player could place the Abbey tile instead of drawing another tile. (1/2013)

↑ If drawing tiles out of a bag, a tile that cannot be placed could be returned to the bag for later use.

↑ If you complete a previously unoccupied city when placing a tile, you do not have to occupy this city and earn the points. You can close the city without it being occupied and (for example) deploy a farmer as long as the farm is unoccupied. The city does not necessarily require a knight to look after it.

Earning points from a closed city

↑Question: On cloister tiles, are we allowed to deploy a follower on the surrounding field segment? Answer: Yes! The same rules are valid for a field surrounding a cloister as for any other field. You can also deploy a farmer next to a cloister. In this case the cloister remains unoccupied for the rest of the game.[unless the cloister is occupied via a magic portal, or from a follower in Carcassonne—ed.]

Deploying follower in a field next to a cloister

↑Question: There is a situation that puzzles us. If a player draws a tile with two city segments and completes a small city, earning 4 points, can he or she then deploy a follower to a new city segment in the same turn?
Answer: A player may only deploy one follower per turn, and that follower may be deployed only once, and it must be before any scoring. If the player already occupies the small, now-completed city, he or she may deploy a second follower to the other city segment immediately after placing the tile. The small city will then be scored and the follower involved returned to the player. If the player does not yet occupy this city, he or she can decide which of the two city segments to deploy a follower to. If the follower is deployed to the small city, it will be returned immediately and the player will earn four points, but the follower cannot be redeployed.

Only one follower can be deployed per turn

↑ In the game there are crossings and junctions. But since all crossings have the same effect—namely, to bring a road to an end—it was decided to sacrifice the distinction between crossings and junctions (or T-crossings, or T-roads...?) in order to not unnecessarily complicate matters.

Crossings and junctions

↑Question: Can a road end in nothing? Answer: No, like all the usual land tiles, a road segment must continue to another road segment on all edges.

Illegal road placement

↑Question: How are the road segments between T-junctions scored? Are the horizontal segments (on top of the T) also ends, or do these count as straight roads that have to be completed elsewhere? Answer: Every crossing (or junction) ends a road, irrespective of which direction they reach the junction from. The thieves cannot enter the small villages on the junctions either. In the example shown, every thief is on its own road.

Scoring of road between juctions

↑ The RGG edition states rather confusingly that “a city is complete when the city is completely surrounded by a city wall and there are no gaps in the wall.” Obviously, a city cannot be completely surrounded by a wall, and the wall have gaps at the same time. It is the city itself which cannot have gaps, as the HiG rules make clear.

↑ Note that the so-called ‘small city’ rule is no longer used in any edition. This rule stated that a city of two segments—the smallest possible completed city— scored only 2 points, or 1 point per tile. Pennants in a small city also scored only 1 point each. However, small cities are now scored in the same way as every other city: that is, 2 points for every city segment, and 2 points per pennant.

↑ Note that a pennant only affects the city segment it is in, not the whole tile (if there is more than one segment on a single tile).

↑ When two followers of one color are occupying a road, city, or farm, you DO NOT score double in these cases. The number of followers (or in Inns and Cathedrals the size of the followers) has no effect on the points that a player earns from a road, city, cloister, or farm. Two knights do not double the points. The number of followers is only important in establishing who has the majority.

Scoring when two followers are in the same city

↑ Note in the box that features are considered to be complete as soon as the tile is placed, although follower placement and scoring only occur afterwards. This is important when playing with The Flier.

↑ In determining farm size, farms can be limited by all kinds of barriers, for example, roads, cities, or rivers which cannot be circumvented, or the edge of the
playing field. It can certainly happen that a farm covers almost the entire playing field, and there will likely be farms that remain open for the entire game.

Farm boundaries

↑ Okay, “never” is a long time. In reality, some special mechanics in some expansions (Festival tiles, the Dragon, etc.) do allow return of farmers to their owners. (12/2014)

↑ The graphic here suggests that it might also be a good idea to lie the follower being used as a scoring marker flat on the scoreboard as the "50" is passed.

↑ This is the first real difference to previously published editions, now having its own section and a description of point tiles, which were previously considered to be a part of the Inns and Cathedrals expansion.

↑ Note that, according to the RGG 3Big Box 3 rules, the last land tile placed could be an Abbey tile. According to these most recent rules, “If one or more players have not yet placed their Abbey tiles when the last landscape tile is drawn and placed, they may now do so, if possible, in clockwise order starting from the left of the person who placed the last tile. Then, the game ends.” This is a reversal of a previous FAQ, which used the statement, “The game is over when the last face-down land tile has been played.” This older statement was to specifically prevent players from placing any abbey tiles which they may still have in their hand after the last ‘normal’ land tile (from the stack, the bag, or the dispenser) had been played.

↑Question: Final scoring: segments of incomplete roads. 1 point per follower
or 1 point per road segment? Cloister: 1 point for every neighbouring tile (e.g. 5), or is an incomplete cloister worth only 1 point? Answer: During the final scoring, roads earn exactly as much as during the game, that is, 1 point per tile that the road occupies. In the example shown, BLUE earns four points at the end of the game. The only exception in the final scoring is a road with an inn from Inns and Cathedrals, which earns no points whatsoever at the end of the game. The cloister earns 1 point for the cloister itself and 1 point for every neighbouring tile. When there are five tiles surrounding the cloister it earns 6 in total.

Scoring incomplete roads

↑Question: It is unclear whether incomplete farms earn points during the final scoring. Answer: It is almost impossible to close off or complete most of the farms. The most important thing when scoring the farms are the cities, which do indeed have to be complete. So: completed cities count on incomplete farms as well.

Scoring "incomplete" farms

↑Question: At the end of the game, do we score farms which are completely closed off by roads, but which don't have any adjacent cities? If so, how? Answer: Strictly speaking, they should be scored exactly like every other farm, with 3 points for every completed city. In this case, that makes a total of zero points. And the farmer is nevertheless unable to leave the farm. All this is of course highly frustrating and cries out for revenge!

Scoring farms closed off by roads

↑ This describes what is known as the "third edition" method of scoring farms, the method currently accepted by all publishers.

↑Question: What are the differences to the rules of the first edition, when
Carcassonne won Game of the Year? Answer: The scoring of farms was not from the perspective of the farms themselves, as it is now, but rather from the perspective of the cities. For every city, you had to check how many farmers of each color were adjacent to it, irrespective of from which side. The player with the majority of adjacent farmers supplying a city would earn four points for it. Each city would as such only be scored once, and therefore earned more points. According to the old rules, BLUE would be the only one to score points, since two of his or her farmers are supplying the cities, even though they are on different farms. YELLOW has only one farmer adjacent to
the city and goes home without anything. According to the new rules, both farmers earn points; and following the most recent rule changes, BLUE even earns points twice.

Scoring farms - differences between editions

↑ A bordering city is one that has a wall bordering the farm; a single point of contact at the corner of a tile is not sufficient.

↑ The HiG rules do not have any instructions regarding what to do in case of a tie. The RGG rules state that tied players “rejoice in their shared victory.” The ZMG rules state, “In case of a tie, play another game to determine the winner!”

↑Big Box 5 actually includes these 72 tiles with standard backs as well as a separate starter tile. Thus, there is effectively an extra tile with a city cap and a horizontal road (CRFR, see Consolidated Tile Reference) in the Big Box 5 base set.